Why do human beings create art? What kind of art do we really want to
make? These questions have been pondered for thousands of years, and, I
fervently hope, will continue to be asked. It is my belief that the search
for meaning and values must be a part of the creative life, and all the
more so in times of great change and turmoil.
In our times people have access to virtually every kind of music, for
any kind of purpose, more so than in any society throughout history. And
we don't have to play music, or be in the presence of musicians playing,
to hear it. Music is available for 'consumption' in every televised show,
in every film, on the radio, in the supermarket, the airplane, the elevator,
the cafe, the doctor's office, and now, in computer games and multimedia
products. It is almost impossible to walk in an urban center without hearing
music; from the headphones of the person sitting next to you on a park bench
to the boom box being carried by a guy half a block away.
This situation appears to be a fortunate one for composers. Audiences
are available everywhere, any time of the day or night, anyone can listen
to music and reap the benefits of composers who are working in our culture.
In one sense, this perception is accurate. But in another sense I question
whether the awareness of music is evolving at all, and whether our economic
alliance with media has another side which is having an adverse effect on
music composition. |
What factors determine the kind of music that is being created and heard
by a majority of Americans? How is musical content, structure and development
influenced by contemporary media?
In composing music for visual media, which can provide musicians with
a prestigious and lucrative career, music essentially becomes a deferential
art form. But what purpose is music really serving? Whose vision and what
values is the composer contributing to? Stravinsky made the comment that
it was his duty to compose music. This sense of duty, which seems deeply
connected to individual conscience, is vital to the composer, and is further
complicated when one art has become economically subservient to another.
Music's relationship to film and television is ironic. Music has been
a part of human culture for at least 30,000 years, while film has been in
existence less than 100 years, and television only 50 years. It is odd that
such new mediums should dominate an art which has so much more in terms
of tradition, history and culture. I often hear musicians, and would-be
musicians, express the desire to score a film. I wonder why this medium
holds such attraction given the numerous artistic and personal compromises
that are necessary to work in the world of entertainment. For most, it is
probably the power of money, the lure of celebrity, or the intoxication
with technology, for others perhaps it is a creative challenge, a call to
action. But are these motivations in proportion to the spiritual and aesthetic
needs of the creative personality? Music composition is a passionate expression
of the inner life, but all too frequently it has become nothing more than
a commercial endeavor, where people with little knowledge of music tell
the composer what the music ought to sound like, how much time it should
take, and how it should influence the audience's emotions. |
